Eliminating Pests

There will be more on pest elimination as I spend more time at the dachas, but here are a few interesting tidbits I've picked up so far.

Rodent Killer

There doesn’t seem to be a large variety of pests that affect the dacha plots, but some of the pest problems can grow to be severe some years. Luckily, many of the homesteaders have found creative, sustainable ways to counter pest activity. 

The most common pest problem comes from an overactive, ever growing population of moles. The easiest solution, in my opinion, is to feed the neighborhood cats. There are a lot of strays with hungry kittens and if they can be coerced into hanging around the garden then that pretty much takes care of all rodent problems. However, this opinion isn’t as popular with much of the older generation who are used to harder times and don’t want to attract diseased cats. 

To Scare the Moles

These contraptions are instead found by the dozens on every dacha  I’ve ever been to. The design is simple and effective. A plastic beer bottle or a empty beer can inserted upside down on a stake of any sort and placed into the soil does the trick. As the wind rattles, the sound scares the moles and the pest problem subsides. Another method I’ve seen for reduction of moles is a hole dug and covered with a piece of wood or cardboard, with a box in the hole. In the box an alarm clock scheduled to ring every hour is placed, also scaring the moles.

Another clever way to keep pests away is to attract other, more attractive species. Many dachniki have small ponds on their property, sometimes more than one.  The ponds are filled with pond lilies that overwinter in the water. The plant life encourages frog populations to flourish, who in turn eliminate insect problems (less mosquitos are an added bonus). The frogs become necessary companions for the plants and friends in the garden.